I am Associate Professor of History at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates
I grew up in Rimini, in northern Italy, and I graduated in Political Science at the Università degli Studi di Bologna. During my undergraduate years, I had my first exposures to British and North-American academia as an exchange student at University of Sussex in Brighton and York University in Toronto. Little did I know that one day I would look back at those first carefree overseas experiences as the prologue of a migrant life. As of today, I have spent more years of my life abroad than in Italy. My personal experience probably explains my fascination with travelers, migrants and diasporas.
After graduating, in a fit of absence of mind, I found myself completing an MBA program at what is now the Bologna Business School. Unexpectedly, this experience took me once again abroad, this time to the United States. After a little over a year spent in what would be my first and last corporate job, I decided to embark on a doctoral program in history at Temple University, where I found great advisors to work with. Although I began the program focusing on the colonial era, I ended up writing my dissertation on early modern Ethiopian-European relations, and over a decade later, I am still contributing to the field.
While in graduate school, I was lucky to secure full time visiting positions at Rowan University and Dickinson College, and upon graduation, I moved to Kuwait, where I taught for six years. I had applied to the position mostly out of curiosity, and I accepted the offer thinking of it as a temporary experience. Twelve years later, I am still in the Gulf, which is now home to me, my better half, and our two kids.
If you are an undergraduate student, a graduate student looking for a reader, a fellow academic, or if you just stumbled on my writings, get in touch!